Levee Board appointees of the past five governors have made countless appearances in Baton Rouge in an effort to erase what they say has become a false perception among many legislators that the board stole the spillway land from Plaquemines Parish residents.
A report prepared by Carmouche for lawmakers in 2000 showed that only about 3 percent of the land had to be expropriated. Most property owners were more than happy to unload what they thought was worthless land, the report said.
The report also addressed what the board said were false charges that the spillway has rarely been used for flood-control purposes, offering evidence that the marshland was used 16 times between 1927 and 1984 to divert water from the Mississippi River.
Meanwhile, repeated efforts by the board to secure financial aid from the Legislature have failed. Six years ago, New Orleans voters overwhelmingly rejected the board's request for nearly $9 million a year in new property taxes
You have to work pretty hard to make people feel sorry for right-wing radio talk show host Robert Namer, so give Orleans Levee Board president James Huey his due. Back in 1997, Huey was so upset about Namer's incessant on-air tirades against the Levee Board that he unilaterally authorized board attorneys to hire private dicks to get embarrassing information on Namer. As if Namer's reputation as a political gadfly weren't enough to discredit him, Huey felt the need to (in the words of his former "confidential assistant" Vincent Bruno) "neutralize" Namer. Per the longstanding Levee Board policy of financing dumb ideas, Huey paid the gumshoes with public funds -- through the board's legal department -- but without telling other board members. After a year, the "investigators" produced nothing. In fact, the probe has become a laughingstock. The tab for the detectives and the attorneys overseeing them came to roughly $45,000. Details of Namergate came to light only recently when the Louisiana Weekly got hold of a sworn deposition by Bruno, whom Huey fired after Bruno admitted to The Times-Picayune that he did nothing to earn his $50,000-a-year salary. Whatever Bruno did or didn't do for his salary, he at least paid attention, for he provided some titillating details about the Namer "investigation" in his testimony. He also admitted that no one ever asked whether spying on Namer had anything to do with flood protection.
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2001-08-28/politics.html
Followed by this one;
Fax Shows State Agency Tried To Use FCC To Silence Namer Documents obtained early Thursday morning reveal that senior Levee District personnel attempted to use information obtained in their investigations of talk show host Robert Namer to undermine his standing with the Federal Communications Commission. In a fax dated January 7, 1998, Gary Beniot, the Senior In-House Council authorized Gerry Metzger, the Board's outside special council "to proceed with the complaint to the FCC" on any violations of FCC protocols. As Benoit wrote, "Additionally, it is my opinion that O[rleans]L[evee]D[istrict] Government officials have a duty to report violations of Federal law to the appropriate officials." According to Namer attorney Bob Harvey, this is true. "Yes, they can, if they learn of them through ordinary sources." However, explained, Harvey, if the administrators use extraordinary methods to obtain the information they must have a letter of approval from the Attorney General authorizing the expenditure of the hourly legal fees and approval from a majority of the levee board commissioners.
http://www.louisianaweekly.com/weekly/news/articlegate.pl?20010827j
These guys are dirty. This is the story here. The levee board members are appointed by the govenor.
Thanks for posting this. I'm printing this to show the next lib that gets in my face about Bush cutting levee money (totally ignoring the fact that Congress/Senate controls the appropriation of funding in this country).
When the locals won't step up to the plate and vote to raise levee money, it's pretty ironic that they are now griping about the federal government's alleged stinginess.